Booting up: The curious origin stories in the language of computing By William Bonaventura, Applied Physics, 2021 Source: Pixabay The field of computer science is riddled with technical jargon. Just think of common movie scenes in which a coder spews a mouthful of incomprehensible phrases, leaving the other characters completely lost. Although much of the […]

Can’t see the forest for the tree? Largest quaking aspen forest is one cloned tree By Lauren MacDonald, Environmental Science & Chemistry, 2022 Photo Credit: Eric Alvarez Approximately 80,000 years ago, a tiny seed belonging to Populus tremuloides took root in Central Utah in what is now Fishlake National Forest. That seed is now the world’s heaviest

Paleobotanists: The Heroes of Climate Change Science By Paula Hornstein, Biochemistry 2020 Source: Shutterstock “Love to have the opinion of a paleobotanist,” says John Hammond, the fictional founder of Jurassic Park, to Dr. Ellie Sattler in the 1993 film as he invited her to preview his dinosaur park. Little did he know how relevant that statement

Break a mirror? Psychology says not to worry By Maya Krause, Environmental Science, 2022 Source: Shutterstock Any Boston Red Sox fan will tell you about the superstition that led the baseball team to fail to win the World Series championship for 86 years. According to “the Curse of the Bambino,” the action of the Red Sox

Vaccines through the ages: The vexing history of vaccination By Christina McConney, Biology, 2021 Source: Shutterstock Vaccines are a loaded topic today — with strong supporters on both sides of the argument, despite overwhelming scientific evidence backing their effectiveness. But before there could be anti-vaccination sentiments, vaccines had to be created. Early China and India (roughly 1500

The History of the Mystery of Area 51 By Sophia Anain, Behavioral Neuroscience, 2022 Source: Google Images From numerous conspiracy theories to the organization of a raid, Area 51 has captured the public’s curiosity for decades. A YouGov poll conducted in 2019 found that 54 percent of U.S. adults believe that the government knows more about unidentified

The root of aging: Why do we die? Dylan Ingham, Entrepreneurship, 2023 Source: Pixabay.com Humans hate dying. Since the beginning of civilization, people everywhere have struggled with the inevitability of their own mortality and tried countless experiments and strategies aimed at extending their lifespan. As time has progressed, the root causes of aging have revealed themselves

Engulfing cells: The origin of multicellular life By Ryan Brady, Chemical Engineering & Biochemistry, 2022 Source: Shutterstock.com Humans represent the pinnacle of organized life, with trillions of cells working together to enable complex thought and interaction with the environment. Both of these processes require a great deal of organization and energy production. On a cellular